Rise
by Hoyt Oesterling
Summary: Throughout history gifted men altered the course of the shinobi world. Uzumaki Naruto believes he is one such man and we will follow his journey from bumbling genin to what he was meant to be. Changes to canon will be present and will started during the battle on the bridge during the wave arc. No Permanent pairings.


_Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto nor receive any compensation for this work._

**Prologue: Wave**

There are few things as terrifying as being trapped in a cage made of ice mirrors against a shinobi that is faster, stronger, and more experienced than you; or that is what one Uzumaki Naruto was currently experiencing. He had tried everything in his limited repertoire of techniques and it only got him peppered with senbon. 'I need an opening to hit him with clones. These senbon hurt. Why does Sasuke-teme feel the need to sleep in today, of all days?'

As he knelt, catching his breath and trying to think of a strategy the masked nin looked at him head cocked as if questioning Naruto's judgment, "Do you still believe that there is a way for you to win Naruto-kun? I have had numerous opportunities to end this battle, but I was curious as whether to kill or immobilize you. Why do you keep trying to continue?"

"I…have to protect…Tazuna-san. I can't…fail Kakashi-sensei. I will…never give up."

At that the shinobi straightened and looked down at the tired and weakened boy in front of him. "I see, in order to make sure that you will not be able to stop us. I am sorry to have to do this but for Zabuza-sama I will kill you. It was a pleasure meeting you again, Naruto-kun." At this he put the senbon away and pulled out a single kunai.

Naruto recognized the voice and the feelings that were associated with it. The boy from the forest, "Haku…I thought we were friends…"

Naruto could almost feel a smile in Haku's voice even behind the mask, "We are shinobi, and it is our job to lie if we believe that it would make our mission easier. The only reason I didn't kill you earlier is you were an unknown and I could not risk Zabuza-sama's health if I were to get injured. Now I see that killing you then would have only made it easier for us today."

At that revelation something in Naruto snapped, he had been alone before, in fact most of his life he had been alone, but this was something different. Never before had he had to deal with the trauma of betrayal by a friend, or what he considered as a friend, a mere acquaintance to most. At the perceived betrayal an emotion he was not familiar with surfaced, rage and with it something far darker. As his enemy flew from the sheet of ice in front of him, foul chakra erupted from his core and forced the senbon out while healing all wounds. Just as the kunai was poised to enter his flesh his hand shot up and grabbed the opposing arm. With a bestial roar he pulled Haku down and drove a fist into his stomach. It would be the last conscious decision he would make regarding Haku.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke is what many would consider an above-average genin. He was polite to his superiors, had a rudimentary understanding of tactics and could even create his own under pressure, could perform and dispel minor genjutsu, and was even able to put up with his rather lacking teammates and sensei, even if that last notion was kept private. Yet, he was bothered, bothered by the fact that it took him longer to perform the tree climbing exercise than his loser of a teammate. When Sakura completed first it was to be expected, she had smaller reserves and was ranked near the top of their graduating class in terms of chakra control. It was Naruto that made him angry for reasons he did not understand. Naruto was the teammate that needed saving, the one that froze upon his first encounter with foreign shinobi, the one that barely walk dogs without getting pulled in every direction. He was brash, excitable, and dense; everything that a true shinobi was not. When Naruto finished his tree first Sasuke could only watch in shock as his loser of teammate jumped for joy before rushing off to tell Kakashi-sensei and his beloved Sakura-chan. All Sasuke could do was simmer and train himself into exhaustion, which was how he ended up in his current predicament.

Currently the last Uchiha was trying to gather his strength to leave the futon he was currently on. "Guh…still not fully recovered." He forced himself to roll over in order to get his feet underneath for the arduous task of standing. After standing and bumbling to the doorway he could stand on his own with leaning and made it to the bathroom. It was right as he was about to flush the toilet that he heard a sound he knew well, for it often in his dreams, a woman screaming.

As he snuck downstairs he heard their client's daughter begging for her son not to be injured otherwise she would kill herself. The grunts of acknowledgment followed by the sound of a fist hitting flesh confirmed that they believed her threat. When Sasuke made it downstairs he saw the boy about to run out of the house with a knife.

"Well brat, didn't take ya mama's words too seriously now did ya? She gonna regret that, and ya gonna regret that more." It was here that Sasuke got his first look at the two men who abducted the woman. The first was holding Tsunami down while the second lifted a chiped katana over his head, grinning wildly at the boy. "Where do ya think I should strike first? Legs, arms, back…it's all up to ya boy." When the boy didn't answer the thug frowned, then smirked, "Back it is then."

As the blade swung he suddenly stopped, a slack-jawed expression on his face. It only lasted a moment however before Tsunami started screaming again and the first thug scrambled to his feet alarmed at the kunai handle protruding from his accomplice's temple. He barely had time to face the threat before Sasuke bowled him over.

* * *

Haruno Sakura was considered an average genin. She had great chakra control, offset by her small reserves and weak physical strength, and also had a firm understanding in theoretical knowledge of the world. She was even fairly convincing at the various dialects they went over in the academy. None of this was helping her on the current mission. She was terrified of the demon brothers her dear Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei stopped. And admittedly was glad they commented on Naruto freezing instead of her. Zabuza was a strong as her sensei, not a plus, and he had a hunter-nin working for him. They specialized in killing other ninja, her mind screamed at her.

When the fog rolled in she stayed next to the bridge builder, saying that she would guard him, but neither of them really believed it would do much good if Kakashi-sensei and Naruto lost. She was surprised that Naruto was able to hit the hunter-nin when he tried to make him a pincushion with ice needles. The killer intent from Zabuza and Kakashi was so bad it was all she could do not to shake, but what came a few minutes later was an absolute nightmare.

"What on earth is that?" She heard the bridge builder mumble. She looked behind her and saw he was shaking. And then she felt it. All the taunts she heard as a child came rushing back, the friends she lost rushing to the forefront of her mind and her blood felt as though it would freeze. The kunai she was holding fell from her grasp with a clang as she struggled to breathe.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi was not having the best day. He would have much rather had Sasuke with him over Naruto, at least Sakura stayed out of the way and Zabuza's ego demanded Kakashi's defeat before he could go after the genin and Tazuna. He was currently trying to decide a course of action to quickly deal with Zabuza so he could go rescue his wayward student. 'If I was Zabuza where would I try to attack?' As he spun around to block a strike from Zabuza he sensed the release of chakra, chakra he had not felt in 12 years. 'I hope you are okay Naruto.'

"What is this Kakashi? You didn't tell me you had a jinchuriki. I wasn't even aware Konoha had one." Zabuza had stopped his strike and was eyeing Kakashi warily.

"Well, now I definitely can't let you leave. That's supposed to be a secret," Kakashi drawled.

As Zabuza tried to disappear back into the mist he suddenly stopped, the hand on his shoulder being the only thing holding him up. His face went slack and blood started running down the back of his neck. As he fell, Kakashi nodded at the clone behind the corpse and they both rushed to where Naruto was ready to put him down if necessary.

What he saw was something he did expect. Naruto was straddling the corpse of the hunter-nin and was driving his fists into the crushed torso. He suddenly stopped and looked at his sensei with slitted, red eyes. "Well I'm glad to see you won Naruto-kun. Perhaps you'd like to get off the body, unless you like that sort of thing. I don't believe Sakura-chan would appreciate that though." As he spoke he pulled his little orange book out and opened it to a dog-eared page. "Also I don't know if you have another set of clean clothes." It seemed that those words got through to his student as the chakra abruptly disappeared and Naruto jumped up in shock.

"I'm sorry Kakashi-sensei. Did you beat Zabuza? What sort of cool jutsu did you use!?" Naruto's naturally exuberant personality suddenly shone through the haze of his bloodlust. He started to fight an imaginary opponent. "I bet it was something completely awesome…did you liquefy him? Or maybe you made his blood evaporate? Or did you cause him to explode like in Super Lethal Warriors 7 when Oda force fed Yuusuke a rice ball made with explosive tags?"

As he kept spouting off various ways his sensei could have won Kakashi interrupted him. "I severed his brain stem with a kunai, much more efficient. Honestly I think you read too much manga, you should pick up a training manual once in a while."

With that statement the mist cleared enough for a short man in an immaculate suit arrived on bridge and scowled, "I knew I shouldn't have paid him in advance...at least he weakened you for me." As he spoke the mist cleared more and a small group of mercenaries stood behind him. "The one that brings me the head of the bridge builder gets paid triple." Those seemed to be the words that encouraged the group to charge the two shinobi standing on the bridge.

Kakashi took his eye of his book and looked at his young charge. "I'll get Gatô. I hope you can deal with this ragtag group." His eye turned into a smile as his pupil beamed and created clones.

* * *

It was two weeks later that Kakashi watched his genin team train and mentally sighed. "Stop, that enough for today."

It was Naruto who started complaining while the other two started to pack up. "Come on sensei, teach us something cool, like how you walked on water…or that cool water dragon technique."

"BE QUIET NARUTO-BAKA! SENSEI IS TRYING TO TALK!" Sakura shouted while attempting to drive her fist into his head.

She looked up in shock as her sensei held her wrist, "That is not necessary Sakura-chan." His eye crinkled into a smile, "I was just wondering why you keep coming to training. You aren't really interested in learning."

"What do you mean Sensei? We're here to learn."

"I don't think so. Since we've returned from wave only Naruto has asked for extra training…even that is only to learn cool and awesome jutsu." He let her wrist go and she quickly lowered and rubbed it. "I want you and Sasuke to come back in a week with a list of reasons as to why I should continue to make an effort with you."

"I thought you were to teach us what we need to know. The academy…"

It was here that he cut her off and squatted so that he could look her in the eye, "You are not in the academy anymore. You are genin. You have several privileges that your civilian counterparts do not. You are members of Konoha's military and as such have a responsibility to decide what you want to learn. Come to me with a list…a good list as to why you want to continue to be a shinobi, what you want to learn and why, as well as all the mistakes you've made so far. This goes for you as well Sasuke-kun. Talent can only get you so far." Kakashi stood and started to walk away guiding Naruto by the shoulder.

"Where are you going with Naruto-baka?"

"He finally asked to learn a reasonable technique. Remember no training for a week."

* * *

There is the first bit of this tale and hope you enjoyed a different, and shorter, wave arc. There will be several changes to Naruto canon, little to no anime only characters will make appearances and I do have a middle and ending planned, just need to get those points fleshed out. Updates will have either weekly or biweekly as I work 6 days a week. I wish it garners enough attention and enthusiasm to get the creative juices flowing. Thank you for reading.


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